A giant step for higher education at Cal Poly

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• Photos: New science and math building at Cal Poly is taking shape

  Photos: New science and math building at Cal Poly is taking shape

  Construction is running ahead of schedule on Cal Poly's new state-of-the-art Center for Science and Mathematics, which is taking shape in the heart of campus.

  The six-story, $132 million facility is slated to open in May 2013 and will house lecture halls, labs, classrooms and faculty offices. The building was funded by state bonds and more than $20 million in private donations.

  Among the architectural highlights are two open atriums on the second floor that cut through the four floors above and are topped by skylights.

• Grant funds study of weight gain by obese women during pregnancy

  Grant funds study of weight gain by obese women during pregnancy

  The National Institutes of Health have awarded Cal Poly kinesiology professor Suzanne Phelan a $3.4 million grant to determine if replacing two meals a day with a liquid shake can prevent obese women from gaining a dangerous amount of weight during pregnancy.

  Phelan, of Cal Poly’s STRIDE center (Science through Translational Research in Diet and Exercise), is working with a team of investigators at Cal Poly and Brown Medical School. Test subjects will include 215 obese pregnant women in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties as well as 215 in Rhode Island.

  More than 33 percent of U.S. women are obese, defined as having a body mass index of more than 30. More than 60 percent of those women gain more weight than recommended during pregnancy, which has been found to increase the risk of several complications during pregnancy and long-term weight gain and obesity, according to a recent news release.

• Cal Poly adding summer quarter faculty fellowship dedicated to organic and sustainable farming methods

  Cal Poly adding summer quarter faculty fellowship dedicated to organic and sustainable farming methods

  Cal Poly is adding a summer quarter faculty fellowship dedicated to organic and sustainable farming methods.

  The College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences Center for Sustainability will add the fellowship in organics to the Horticulture and Crop Science Department through funding from the Lundberg Family Farms’ pledge of support.

  Cal Poly students will receive training and research opportunities in organic farming methods, food safety and sustainable agricultural systems.

• Poly project helps boy walk

  Poly project helps boy walk

  At an exposition of Cal Poly engineering senior projects Thursday, 4-year-old Nathan Cooper tested a device that will allow him to walk alongside his parents on dirt trails.

  Nathan has spinal muscular atrophy and is one of the latest people to be helped by the Cal Poly kinesiology department’s Activity for All project.

  Funded by a $125,000, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation, the project brings together senior kinesiology and engineering students to design gear for disabled people to engage with nature.

• Piece by piece: New classrooms for Paso High

  Piece by piece: New classrooms for Paso High

  Construction workers are simultaneously completing the first stage and beginning work on the second of a $20 million upgrade at Paso Robles High School.

  The first phase of the project includes the addition of a 20-room classroom building, which will replace aging portable buildings.

  The second phase will include construction of a 400-seat theater as part of a remodeling of the visual and performing arts center.